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WORLD-VOICES ORGANIZATION
World-Voices Organization Is Growing With
New Members, Projects & Spring Convention
January 14, 2014

By Dustin Ebaugh
Voice Actor
President, World-Voices Organization


(VOXtra) - Maybe you’ve heard of us, maybe you haven’t.  Either way, the World-Voices Organization (WoVo) is working to make the voice over community better. 

How so? Well, it all started WAY back in the spring of 2012, when four voice actors got together and talked about the need for an industry organization. A group that would advocate for the voice actor, become a community where we could help each other and also help grow the next generation of voice actors. 

Those four people were: Dave Courvoisier, Dan Lenard, Chris Mezzolesta and me.   

From the gestation of that idea, we started working to build a non-profit organization that would benefit all voice actors, even if they weren’t members.

We decided it was more important to focus on our mission(s) than to focus on membership drives. So, we’re a pretty small group. 

We started with just four people. This month we celebrated our 125th member. Not a huge organization, but it’s growing. 

Also, we were quite thrilled to add Elizabeth Holmes to the Executive Board as Treasurer this month. She’s such a brilliant lady and will add her wealth of experience in accounting and tax matters to our team.   

NEW MENTOR PROGRAM STARTS

Speaking of experience before becoming a voice actor, that’s where the "helping others” part comes in. 

In our membership we have marketing experts, technical gurus, equipment hounds, internet and SEO specialists, attorneys, accounting types and a vast wealth of experienced people. 

This month we’re also collating that information and asking our members to be mentors to other people who need their expertise. So, if I have a question about a new microphone or if I can deduct a certain expense at tax time, we have the resources for those questions. 

This is all available only for members, through our website and I couldn’t be more excited about it.  

BEST PRACTICES FOR INDUSTRY


Something else we hold dearly is our best practices for voice talent, coaches and demo producers, and production houses. 

These documents were written with a lot of member input and feedback and were ratified by the board. 

All members, be they professional, associate or industry partners, must agree to abide by these practices. Most all of them are just pure common sense for honest folks.   

MEMBERS MET - LOTS OF IDEAS

Recently we had our first annual membership meeting with well over 50 of our members attending the event live. It was an exhilarating experience. 

Quite frankly, I thought it was awesome to have so many folks communicating with the Executive Board in real time. We received a LOT of suggestions and ideas, for which we are SO grateful. 

We have since had three Executive Board meetings because there were so many things to discuss that the members generated. We still have more to do on the list of the comments culled from the annual meeting.

MORE PROJECTS AHEAD ...

Other things we’re working on are:
  • Virtual and physical meet up groups for voice actors around the globe
  • Bringing in the leaders of the physical meet up groups as an Advisory Board to the Executive Board.
  • How to or explainer videos for members only in the media section of our website            
  • An amalgamation of VO rates from all over the world          
  • Implementing a few other suggestions from our members for content for the website  
FIRST WoVOCon THIS SPRING ...

Also, we all know voice actors like to get together and socialize, since we spend so much time in isolation. SO, we will be having our first WoVOCon in Las Vegas in the spring of 2014. 

Time and date are not yet set, but we’ll be working that out shortly. We will be posting details, as they become available, on the WoVO Members Only Facebook page and on WorldVO.org. 

This event will be for members only, so if you’re not yet a member of WoVO and would like to attend, please join us today; you can find the application on our website.   

We are really excited about the growth of World-Voices Organization and all of the input we have received from our members. 

This is a very exciting time and our organization is only going to get better.        
------------------------------------------------
ABOUT DUSTIN
Dustin Ebaugh is the president of the World-Voices Organization and a professional voice actor living in Las Vegas and working with clients all over the world. He has voiced commercials, promos and eLearning content for many internationally-recognized brands.  When he’s not working he can usually be found in the vicinity of his beloved Weber grill making a tasty treat for his beautiful wife Kirissa and hopefully not his dog Gillian.


Email: dustin@tvandradiovoices.com
Web: www.dustinebaugh.com
World-Voices Organization: www.WorldVO.org


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Comments (1)
Diana Birdsall
1/14/2014 at 1:59 PM
Extraordinary group and I'm looking forward to all of the accomplishments going forward. Membership is in my future :)
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